Professions, hobbies and crafts that involve the utilitarian and creative forming of fabric and sheet goods such as thin leathers and comparable materials are well known. Quilting, dressmaking, sewing and other crafts are hobby and workplace activities that require a sheet material to be cut to a predetermined size before it is fabricated into a finished good. On many occasions, the cutting of multiple pieces is required. In quilting applications, for example, multiple duplicates of woven fabric pieces are assembled into designs that are repeated in the overall pattern of a quilt. This requires repetitive cutting. Star patterns having separate points radiating from a central five-sided shape are an example.
In the prior art, hand-held cutters used with a quilting ruler such as that described in U.S. Design Pat. No. 311,873 "Quilting Ruler" (issued Nov. 6, 1990) facilitate the task of repetitive cutting. These cutters provide an advantage of speed and accuracy when compared to the process of cutting that uses hand scissors.
The hand-held cutters used in the prior art with a quilting ruler can be characterized as simple devices that include a cutting wheel mounted at the end of a stick handle. The use of such a device involves substantial wrist movement. With current concerns expressed about repetitive stress injuries, carpal tunnel syndrome and other muscular-skeletal afflictions, there exists a need to provide a hand-held cutter that is less stressful in the physiological environment of fabric and sheet material cutting.
Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved hand-held cutter for fabric and sheet goods that is physiologically and ergonomically appropriate. It is a further object to provide a physiologically conforming grip in a hand cutter which reduces wrist stress and wrist movement. It is also an additional object of the invention to transfer the physiological stress caused by the use of a hand cutter from the wrist to larger muscular skeletal groups in the arm and shoulder and to reduce wrist stress in cutting motions.